I do not always blog about my weekends, but if I am not traveling overseas I am usually traveling around Europe. Last weekend, I had a trip planned to London, departing Friday evening and returning early Monday morning to get me back to the office in time for work.

One of the benefits of my job is having access to live LH flight loads. While that does not do me a lot of good when booking my cheap €99 fares weeks in advance, it is nice to take a look at loads before my flight to see if I have a chance at getting a bump.

LH tends to be very good at inventory management, but Friday was a busy day and I seemed to pick the right flight, deparing at 1830. When I pulled up the loads for the 737-300 about two hours prior to departure I saw that it was overbooked by 18 and LH predicted that it would end up being over by three.

Leaving a bit earlier than usual, I arrived at the gate one hour before the flight just as announcement was being made soliciting volunteers. If I had come a few mintues later, I likely would have missed out: there seemed to be plenty of takers and I noticed at least five passengers who were bumped.

The compensation for going on the next flight, 1hr and 25mins later, was €125 in cash--not bad for a ticket that was about €85 after I applied my discount voucher.

The ladies did not have any cash at the gate, so I got a nifty voucher from LH that resembled an old paper ticket. I am holding on it to now, but better cash it before I lose it...

After close to 30 flights on Lufthansa over the last few years, this was my first bump. About time, though I am not getting my hopes up for my another bump when I travel to Helsinki this weekend!